Austin American-Statesman

Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011

Dance instructor found not guilty in assault

COURTS

Instructor cleared of 1 count

A Travis County jury on Wednesday acquitted Austin hip-hop instructor Stacey Aldridge of one count of sexual assault, but Aldridge remains in jail on three additional sexual assault charges.

The not-guilty verdict came after a trial this week in state District Judge Mike Lynch's court. One of Aldridge's former students testified that he sexually assaulted her at his Northwest Austin apartment after a night out in 2006, defense lawyer David Frank said. The woman was 22 at the time.

Aldridge, 43, was an instructor at the Dance Zone, a school near the University of Texas. He has also been an instructor for UT's informal classes.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Pryor said prosecutors plan to try Aldridge in the three remaining cases. Those charges stem from allegations that Aldridge assaulted one woman at the dance studio where he worked and assaulted two 17-year-old girls at a club after buying them drinks, according to court documents.

By Steven Kreytak, American-Statesman staff

            Austin American-Statesman
                              Mistrial declared in case of former stripper,
                                           boyfriend accused of murder

By Steven Kreytak
Monday, June 13, 2011

A judge declared a mistrial Monday after a Travis County jury reported being hopelessly deadlocked on whether a former stripper and her boyfriend committed murder or aggravated robbery in the death of a strip club patron last year.

Jessica Krause-Patterson, 20, and Jon Tyrell Banks, 23, had been accused of killing Elmore Allen, 49, after he left the Hot Bodies Gentlemen's Club, where Krause-Patterson worked. Defense lawyers argued that Banks struck Allen to protect Krause-Patterson from an impending sexual assault.

The jury deliberated for three hours Friday and close to eight hours Monday. The foreman first reported that the panel was split 7-5 in the early afternoon, and despite state District Judge Bob Perkins' encouragement that they reach a verdict, the jury
foreman later reported it was hopeless.

"It is our firm belief that this decision is final and will not change without a surrender of our conscientious convictions," the foreman wrote in a note read by Perkins in court.

Prosecutor Kathryn Scales said prosecutors would further evaluate the case before deciding whether to proceed to trial again.

Perkins' decision to declare the mistrial satisfied none of the dozens of family members of the defendants and Allen waiting at the courthouse.

One woman seated with the defendants' supporters cried.

Derbie Allen-Roberson, one of Allen's sisters, said: "We pray for that family; we pray for those two defendants.

"We don't hate them, but Elmore was a loving person," she said.

[ Defense lawyers David Frank, who represented Banks, and Russ Hunt Jr., who represented Krause-Patterson, said the decision shows weaknesses in the state's case. They said jurors told them the split was 7-5 in favor of acquittal.]

"The jurors thought they probably were guilty, but the state didn't present enough to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt," Hunt said.

Allen, who worked as a furniture store deliveryman, was a regular at area strip clubs, including Hot Bodies on Burleson Road in Southeast Austin. He went there early in the afternoon on April 12, 2009, flashed a pocketful of cash, drank heavily
and received private dances from several strippers, including Krause-Patterson, who performed under the stage name "Sin," according to testimony.

Two dancers told the jury that he was rude and had touched them inappropriately.

At some point after midnight, Banks arrived at the club but left with his brother about 1:45 a.m., according to testimony.

[ Defense lawyers argued that because Banks was not at the club when Krause-Patterson was done working, she reluctantly accepted a ride from Allen. Because Krause-Patterson did not want a customer knowing where she lived, she told him to go to an apartment complex on Bluff Springs Road where she used to live, and that she called Banks and told him to meet them there, the defense argued.]

Scales argued that it was a setup and that Banks was waiting at the apartment complex when Allen and Krause-Patterson arrived and hit him in the head with a hard object, knocking him back into some landscaping. She said that after he struck
his head on some stone and died, they took his cash, a ring and his cellphone.

Scales noted that Banks had sent a text message to a friend about 1 a.m. saying "this bread still here," evidence, she said, that he was sizing up Elmore for robbery. She also noted testimony that Banks later gave a gun and a ring to a friend and that he burned his clothes.

[ Defense lawyers said that Allen began to grope Krause-Patterson on the drive and that Banks punched him to protect her from what she believed was an impending sexual assault. They said if the pair had planned to rob Allen, they would have done it in the desolate area near the strip club and not in a heavily populated apartment complex.]

"Just because of what she does for a living doesn't mean she has to put up with these unwanted advances from people," Hunt said.

Stripper's boyfriend to claim he killed patron in her defense, lawyer says

Prosecutors say couple lured customer from club to rob him

By Steven Kreytak
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Elmore Allen spent his final night alive last year at the Hot Bodies Gentlemen's Club in Southeast Austin, where he drank, flashed cash and got table dances from several strippers, including Jessica Krause-Patterson, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

When Allen, 49, left the club at closing time, he was with Krause-Patterson. The next morning, he was dead in the parking lot of an apartment complex where Krause-Patterson, then 19, used to live, said prosecutor Kathryn Scales.

Scales told a Travis County jury that Allen was killed while being robbed by Krause-Patterson, 20, and her boyfriend, Jon Tyrell Banks, 23. They are being tried together on murder and aggravated robbery charges before senior state District Judge Bob Perkins.

They each face up to life in prison if convicted of either charge.

[ David Frank, who represents Banks, gave the jury a different version of what happened that night. He said Allen was intoxicated, had groped Krause-Patterson while giving her a ride home and that Banks later attacked Allen to save Krause-Patterson from him.

"There is no intent to kill Elmore Allen," Frank said. "His intent was to save his girlfriend from what is obviously and imminently going to be a sexual assault." ]

Scales said Hot Bodies is an all-nude strip club off Burleson Road and that Krause-Patterson would usually get rides to and from the club from Banks. The night of Allen's death, Banks was there but left 15 minutes before closing with his brother, she said.

While Krause-Patterson rode in Allen's truck from the club to an apartment complex on Bluff Springs Road near Interstate 35 and William Cannon Drive, she and Banks were in constant communication on their cellphones, Scales said.

Scales did not disclose the content but said those communications made it clear their intent was "to lure Elmore Allen from Hot Bodies and to separate him from his money."

She told the jurors that Banks' brother will testify that he drove Banks to that apartment complex around that time, parked near the front and waited for a time while Banks walked away before returning with Krause-Patterson.

Allen was found dead later that morning with his pockets turned inside out and his cellphone, wallet and one of his rings gone, Scales said. He had a gash near his eye, his head was resting on a stone garden retaining wall, and he had suffered "a devastating fatal wound to the back of his head," she said.

Banks later gave a friend a ring taken from Allen and told someone that he may have killed a man, Scales said.

Krause-Patterson's lawyer, Russ Hunt Jr., reserved his opening statement for later in the trial.

[ Frank, Banks' lawyer, implored the jury to wait to hear all of the evidence before reaching a conclusion.

Frank said Banks and his brother went to the club the night Allen died but left just before closing to get gas. Finding the brothers gone when the club closed at 2 a.m., Krause-Patterson accepted an offer of a ride with Allen, Frank said.

During the drive, Allen turned the radio up so Krause-Patterson could not make calls on her cellphone and began groping her, Frank said.

"Elmore Allen is breathing heavy on her," Frank said. "He had his hands on her shoulders, on her breasts. He was feeling her all over."

Frank said Krause-Patterson directed Allen to a friend's apartment complex because she did not want to tell a customer where she lived. Frank said that Krause-Patterson asked Allen to let her out during the drive but that he refused.

When they got to the Colonial Village at Canyon Hills apartments on Bluff Springs Road, Krause-Patterson got out and tried to walk away, but Allen followed her and would not let go of her, Frank said.

"She is screaming 'Let go of me,'" Frank said.

He told the jury that soon Banks, who had been alerted by text message that Krause-Patterson asked to be dropped at that complex, came running and told Allen, "Get off my girlfriend."

"Elmore Allen, who has a blood alcohol concentration of .09, gets in front of Jessica and says, 'Oh, no, you don't. I'm the man here," Frank said. "And J.T. (Banks) stands up and protects his girlfriend against Elmore Allen and he hits him, and Elmore Allen falls back."]

Strippers: Club patron who was found dead had been lewd, rude

By Steven Kreytak
Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The murder trial of a former stripper and her boyfriend who are accused of robbing and killing a customer last year continued in a Travis County courtroom today, with the jury hearing from a strip club manager and the customer’s wife among other witnesses.

Jessica Krause-Patterson, 20, and Jon Tyrell Banks, 23, each are charged with murder and aggravated robbery in the April 13, 2010, death of Elmore Allen, 49.

Allen, of Del Valle, worked as a delivery man for a furniture store and did odd jobs breaking horses, delivering furniture and performing electrical work, said his wife, Raechelle Smith.

Smith told the jury that she and Allen had a 9-year-old son together and he had seven children from a previous marriage.

Eleftherios Karamolegkos, owner of Hot Bodies, a gentleman’s club on Burleson Road in Southeast Austin, told the jury that Allen was a regular at the club and came in the early afternoon on April 12, 2010.

Karamolegkos said that Krause-Patterson danced at the club starting in January 2010 and reported to work at 6:58 p.m. on April 12, 2010.

Her stage name was “Sin,” Karamolegkos said.

Lulu Hayward, a dancer at the club, testified that Allen was “a nice, kind of friendly guy” who paid her $20 for two table dances that day. She said that after those dances she did not offer a dance to Allen again.

On cross-examination, defense lawyers Matt Nichols, who represents Banks, and Russ Hunt Jr., who represents Krause-Patterson, pressed her about why she did not seek further business with Allen.

“He wanted to get kind of lewd,” she said. “He wanted to touch more.”

Dancer Del’Andra Johnson said that Allen was acting flamboyantly at the sparsely populated club that day, dancing around in the club in front of an empty stage, drinking and flashing his money.

“He was rude. He had a lot of money to spend. He was being stingy. Pinching it off little by little,” said Johnson, who earned about $80 from Allen that night.

On cross-examination, Johnson said that Allen was inappropriately touching her. Things got so bad, she said, that she reported Allen to Karamolegkos.

[ During opening statements defense lawyer David Frank told jurors that after the club closed and Elmore gave Krause-Patterson a ride, Banks attacked Elmore to protect her from an impending sexual assault. ]

Prosecutor Katheryn Scales said that Banks attacked Elmore during a planned robbery set up by him and Krause-Patterson.

Elmore was found dead at Bluff Springs Road apartment complex where Krause-Patterson used to live several hours after he left the club. His head was on some stone landscaping edging and he has suffered trauma to the back of his head, Scales said.

Brother of murder defendant testifies that accused 'were acting happy and normal'

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Testimony: Accused acted ‘happy'

The brother of murder defendant Jon Tyrell Banks testified Thursday that he drove Banks to an apartment complex on Bluff Springs Road in Southeast Austin hours before strip club patron Elmore Allen was found dead there last year.

Ricky Epps said that after he parked at the front of the complex, his brother walked deeper into the complex before returning about 3½ minutes later with his girlfriend, Jessica Krause-Patterson.

While they drove home, Banks asked Epps to pull up to a garbage pail so he could throw out something from Krause-Patterson's bag.

"They were acting happy and normal," Epps testified.

Banks, 23, and Krause-Patterson, 20, are being tried together on aggravated robbery and murder charges in the death of Allen.

Prosecutors say Krause-Patterson, who worked at Hot Bodies Gentlemen's Club, lured Allen, a customer, to the apartment complex where Banks was waiting so the pair could rob Allen, who was found dead there the next day.

[ David Frank, one of Banks' lawyers, told the jury during opening statements that Banks punched Allen to defend Krause-Patterson from Allen's aggressive behavior after Allen agreed to give Krause-Patterson a ride home. Frank said that Banks did not intend to kill Allen. ]

Jury deliberating in murder case

Friday, June 10, 2011

A Travis County jury was deliberating late Friday in the murder trial of an Austin stripper and her boyfriend, who are accused of killing one of her customers during a robbery last year.

During closing arguments Friday, prosecutors said Jessica Krause-Patterson, 20, and Jon Tyrell Banks, 23, took cash, a ring and a cellphone from Elmore Allen, 49, after Krause-Patterson lured him from Hot Bodies Gentlemen's Club on Burleson Road, where she worked.

On April 13, 2009, Allen was hit in the face with a blunt object and hit the back of his head on a rock at an apartment complex where Krause-Patterson lived at the time.

Defense lawyers argued that Allen had groped Krause-Patterson after offering
her a ride home and that when Banks found them at the apartment complex
he punched Elmore to protect her from an impending sexual assault.

Both could face life in prison if convicted.